AN EVEN MATCH
June 9 -- Last year, even though the Pistons were making their first trip to the finals in 14 years, I picked them to beat the Lakers because they were much more mobile and played a smarter, more aggressive, more varied brand of basketball.
This year the choice is not as clear-cut. San Antonio is much more evenly matched with Detroit. I’m particularly pleased to see two teams in The Finals that play good, solid fundamental basketball. Both emphasize rebounding – the Pistons are especially effective on the offensive boards – and play serious defense. The Pistons are the champs until they lose, but the Spurs have also been to The Finals three times recently and should rise to the occasion. The Spurs are a solid ball club and do not beat themselves.
The two teams are about equal in athleticism. Both have good speed and move well at both ends of the court. The Pistons beat Miami by putting single coverage on Shaq and letting him have his points inside while putting a lot of pressure on the other players. Tim Duncan presents much more of a challenge because he moves well and can score from both inside and outside. The bigger question will be what he does on defense. Will he guard Rasheed Wallace, who will take him outside, or will he play Ben Wallace. Whoever guards Rasheed, you know Rasheed will pull them away from the basket and open things up for Detroit’s guards.
Tempo is a key factor. The team that is able to get into a groove and stay there should prevail. Neither team needs to do anything fancy, just stay with what got them there. You may see a back door play added here and there, but that’s about it.
I don’t look for a lot of animosity, a lot of pushing and shoving, just good, hard, intelligent basketball. I hope both teams shoot well and create fast break opportunities so the games are exciting. Everybody talks about how individual players match up against each other, but that isn’t so much a factor until someone gets into foul trouble and both he and his team have to adjust.
A strong bench is obviously important and here again I think the two teams are pretty evenly matched, with Lindsey Hunter, Antonio McDyess and Elden Campbell for Detroit, Brent Barry, Robert Horry, and possibly Glenn Robinson – who hasn’t played that much thus far – for the Spurs.
Finally, we’ll see who handles adversity best and who makes the adjustments when necessary. That’s when a team’s character shows itself. The officiating will play a role, of course, but even when calls don’t go your way, you can’t let that take you out of your game. The Pistons could say they’ve already had enough adversity this year, thank you, but they’ve managed to hang tough regardless and I think they will continue to do so.
After the first game, we’ll have a much better indicator of how the rest of the series is going to play out. I’ll be back with more commentary as we go along.
